It's warm, it's sunny and it's dry...let's plant our warm season crops. It's not too late to transplant tomatoes, peppers and eggplants so get ye to the garden center and get transplants now. Once you get these three planted, put down a layer of newsprint around those plants and cover the newsprint with wheat straw. There is a supply of straw at the front of the garden. It is especially important to mulch the tomatoes as a soil borne virus will splash onto the lower leaves of the tomato plants and start killing the leaves. As you plant tomatoes, crush an eggshell and put into the bottom of the planting hole, the tomatoes like that extra bit of calcium. Then stake the tomato plants, some of my cherry tomatoes will be over 8' tall by the end of the season.
Let's plant summer squash, cucumbers, and beans. Beans may either be bush varieties or pole varieties, it doesn't matter. Bush varieties will give you a faster crop, pole varieties will give you a larger crop but take longer to mature. The pole varieties will need something to climb on so plan for that. While you're at it, grow your cucumbers vertically, those tomato cages actually work well to support cucumbers as well as the eggplant and pepper plants. Your peppers will get so full of peppers that their brittle stems will break later in the season.
If you want some of the winter squashes such as acorn, butternut or spaghetti, plant those now. Those squash grow on vines that like to sprawl so give them room to run. Same thing with melons, plant those now and give them room to run. The smaller watermelons such as "Sugar Baby" will do the best. Cantaloupes are the easiest melon to grow.
If you've got cabbage growing, it's time to give them supplemental fertilizer. Scratch blood meal into the soil and water it in good and those heavy feeding cabbage plants will be happy.
We're late in the season for additional lettuce or spinach or peas. Don't despair, we'll grow more of those in the fall.
Let's plant summer squash, cucumbers, and beans. Beans may either be bush varieties or pole varieties, it doesn't matter. Bush varieties will give you a faster crop, pole varieties will give you a larger crop but take longer to mature. The pole varieties will need something to climb on so plan for that. While you're at it, grow your cucumbers vertically, those tomato cages actually work well to support cucumbers as well as the eggplant and pepper plants. Your peppers will get so full of peppers that their brittle stems will break later in the season.
If you want some of the winter squashes such as acorn, butternut or spaghetti, plant those now. Those squash grow on vines that like to sprawl so give them room to run. Same thing with melons, plant those now and give them room to run. The smaller watermelons such as "Sugar Baby" will do the best. Cantaloupes are the easiest melon to grow.
If you've got cabbage growing, it's time to give them supplemental fertilizer. Scratch blood meal into the soil and water it in good and those heavy feeding cabbage plants will be happy.
We're late in the season for additional lettuce or spinach or peas. Don't despair, we'll grow more of those in the fall.
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